Awaycation Summer 2024 - Spain

Planning goes ahead whatever we are doing outside of Motorhoming!!  

Once we are back into France on the way back I might be more relaxed and "go with the flow". In Spain I have been checking places to go and that, to me at least, means getting places to stop booked. We have used the Camping-Car Park network of aires a lot over the last two years and this is something that I will continue to do.

I am amazed at the number of vloggers. bloggers and forum commenters I see that have paid £50000+  for a van, and many more like £100000, and yet begrudge a decent stop that costs about €14 a night and has EHU and all the waste and fresh water services included. I don't mind the idea of "rough camping" or "wild camping", but it does do my head in when they post about free sites and then they look like a layby or a dried muddy field!  I do like tarmac or gravel to park on!  

I am currently awaiting the confirmation from Sandaya at Camping Valencia that the three nights I have booked are all sorted and confirmed. They are a little slow and when I emailed there's a stock reply saying they will get back to me within 72 hours.  It's just coming up to 44 hours since I booked online. 

It does mean there is only one night to fill between Avila and Valencia.  It's not a journey I will relish in one go in the van. 

According to Google maps it will take about 11 hours on the road.  I have set the dimensions of the van and set a maximum speed of 100kph into MyRouteApp. 

I also set "no tolls". A lot of the highways in Spain are free anyway but there are a few AP highways as opposed to A highways. The P means "paying"!

We have been to Toledo before. Back in 2014 on our last big trip together on the Triumph we stayed in a small hotel, Santa Isabel. This was only a few hundred meters from the Cathedral.  The streets were too narrow for a motorhome and cobbled!  Almost too much for a motorcycle!

Alcazar

This time we will simply go past.  We might get a chance to have a scenic view but it's not on this year "must stop" list.  What is though are the "Don Quijote" (local spelling) windmills in Consuerga.  There's a free aire nearby where hopefully we can stop for a while to break up the trip, and take a walk to see the windmills.

For the overnight I am looking at moving on a bit further than here. There are two aires listed in Alcazar de San Juan. One at the Carrefour with dedicated stops and overnighting and even EHU is possible. The other isn't far away and is an authorised aire.  I have put both in the route for the day.  Fingers crossed on that one.

The following day it's about 190 miles to Valencia.  It looks from the map that most of that is on the toll free A3 highway.

And then what?  Who knows!